1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet type recording apparatus using a line type recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an inkjet type recording apparatus, it can happen that the ink within the head nozzles is dried and increases its viscosity to be solidified. Further, in some cases, paper powder, dust, bubbles, etc. may get mixed with the ink in the nozzles, which leads to defective ink ejection due to clogging, resulting in deterioration in recording quality. Thus, it is necessary to perform cleaning on the recording head.
US 2008/0007592 discusses a cleaning mechanism which performs wiping with a wiper blade inclined non-parallel to the direction in which the nozzle array is formed. By inclining the wiper blade, the ink scraped off from the nozzle surface is gathered at one end portion and the gathered ink is wiped off by another wiper.
As shown in FIG. 5A, a nozzle chip 20 constituting a recording head has a nozzle surface 22 having a plurality of nozzle arrays for ejecting ink, and a nozzle substrate in which energy elements formed in correspondence with the nozzles are embedded. Further, the nozzle chip 20 has a base substrate 24 having wiring electrically connected to the nozzle substrate. An electrical connection portion between the nozzle substrate and the base substrate 24 is covered with a sealing portion 23 consisting of a resin material, and is protected against corrosion and disconnection. As shown in FIG. 5B, which is an enlarged view, when the nozzle surface 22 is seen sideways, the resin material of the sealing portion 23 is swollen beyond the nozzle surface 22, thus constituting a protrusion protruding from the nozzle surface in the ink ejecting direction. On one nozzle chip 20, there are provided two sealing portions 23 in the vicinity of both ends of the nozzle surface 22 with respect to the direction in which the nozzle arrays are formed.
If wiping is performed on the recording head of this construction, which has the sealing portions 23 swollen higher than the nozzle surface 22, by using the wiper blade as discussed in US 2008/007592, the following problem occurs.
Since the wiper blade is obliquely inclined, an end portion of the wiper blade first passes the nozzle surface 22 to reach the sealing portion 23. Depending upon the inclination angle of the wiper blade, the forward portion thereof may climb onto the sealing portion 23 while the remaining portion thereof is wiping the nozzle arrays. Then, the wiper blade as a whole is raised, and the intimate contact between the portion opposing the nozzle arrays and the nozzle arrays becomes rather insufficient, making it impossible to perform proper wiping on the nozzles.